Join the Riot for Austerity!

Where I'm Going to Be Next

For a host of reasons, I do try to limit my travel. But I also do give talks, and I do do interviews, and this corner of the blog will tell you what's upcoming. If you'd like me to come speak, send me an email at jewishfarmer@gmail.com, and we'll see if we can work things out.

My Next Talk:

On February 16 at 3pm, I'm giving a FREE talk on the basics of food storage - why and how - at my friend Joy's store, The Olde Corner Store 133 Factory, Gallupville NY 12073. 518-872-1610. All are welcome, and Joy will be offering a discount to anyone who wants to get started in storing bulk foods.

About the Books

In case you wondered, there are two of them.

Coming out in the fall of this year, _Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front_ focuses on how families can adapt to a lower energy, hotter world - and help hold back the worst of the disaster as well.

Coming in Spring '09, _A Nation of Farmers_ co-authored with Aaron Newton explores our current agricultural situation, makes a case for a sustainable future, and draws the connections between our agriculture and our lost democracy.

Both forthcoming from New Society Publishers.

About Me

I'm a 35 year old writer and subsistence farmer, author of two forthcoming books on Peak Oil and Climate Change _Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front_ (Fall '08) and _A Nation of Farmers (And Cooks)_ (Spring '09) the latter co-authored with Aaron Newton. Both books are forthcoming from New Society Publishers.
I used to run a small, Jewish themed CSA, but now we're concentrating on subsistence agriculture, growing food and teaching others to grow food.
My training was in literature, focusing on the Renaissance and demographic and cultural crises of the 17th century. I've switched to focusing on the demographic and cultural crises of the 21st century for the moment, but retain an interest in all things literary.
In my spare time (of which there isn't much), my husband Eric and I are raising Eli (7 1/2), Simon (6), Isaiah (4) and Asher (2), and assorted critters and livestock, building an agrarian future.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Today "We" is One More.

Looking at the responses to Colin's wonderful post, I think a lot of people's initial reaction to this project is fear, or perhaps "I might do it if you make me but I could never volunteer." And I genuinely understand that reaction - after all, my own reaction when I saw the real numbers was "what if we can't." I understand that this is a bigger change that many people are ready to make, and that's ok. But I do want other people to understand that "I can't" is merely a first reaction.

Because, what if we can do it? Right now, the yahoo list is at about 150 participating families, with a total of nearly 500 people involved. And 500 hundred people are, in themselves, enough to make a real stand. To face the people who say "we can't or won't do this" and say "We have to. We believe in the future. And each of us is living proof we can." We can put the faces of all of us, men and women, children and the elderly who are doing this out there and say "when they tell us it is impossible to do what is necessary, they are wrong!" 500 people is a bigger group than started the American revolution.

I never dreamed we'd have 500 people. Now I'm starting to dream even bigger. What about 1,000 people? What could they do? How many people would they tell, speak to, influence? We could make music, video, art. We can speak out with a collective voice, and say not only "We can. You can" but also "We're here and we won't go away. This is too important." Less than 1,000 people began the march across India in Gandhi's revolution.

5,000 people all over the world who cut their emissions would be a constituency, a PAC, a political power, a voice of quiet joy and anger. 5,000 people alone could save 25,000 barrels of oil from being burned. Less than 5,000 people changed the 2000 US elections.

When 10,000 voices speak, you cannot help but hear. When 10,000 people stand up and say "We did. We can. We must" those who would rather not hear us have to pay attention. 10,000 people have changed the course of history hundreds of times.

50,000 can march and stop traffic. 100,000 can change the world. 1 can change the world if it is the right 1 - just not all alone. I don't know how many people it will take before my kids and your kids and everyone's kids get to live in a world with water and reasonable security - but getting to that number starts with one and only goes up until we reach it. We don't have a choice - I didn't make these numbers up, and science doesn't negotiate. The simple fact is that these are the numbers that give us the best chance of having a future - and that's worth any price to me, and to a lot of other people.

This started out with Miranda and I challenging one another. Neither of us wanted to do this alone, so we thought we'd be better together. Neither of us ever thought that there would be 150 participants in a matter of a few weeks. Now we wonder - what is possible? We are, of course, sometimes overwhelmed and frightened. But hope is a heady and joyous thing, and that makes the fear subside. And with friends, and allies, neighbors and community, and eventually the dragging feet of political support, it gets easier and easier and easier...

I leave you with an excerpt from Marge Piercy's _The Low Road_

....Alone you can fight,you can refuse, you cantake what revenge you canbut they roll over you.

But two people fightingback to back can cut througha mob, a snake-dancing filecan break a cordon, an armycan meet an army.

Two people can keep each othersane, can give support, conviction,love, massage, hope, sex.Three people are a delegation,a committee, a wedge. With fouryou can play bridge and startan organization. With xisyou can rent a whole house,eat pie for dinner with noseconds, and hold a fund raising party.A dozen make a demonstration.A hundred fill a hall.A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;ten thousands, power and your own paper;a hundred thousand, your own media;ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,it starts when you careto act, it starts when you doit again after they said no, it startswhen you say "We"and know who you mean, and eachday you mean one more.-Marge Piercy "The Low Road"

My 11-year old son chose to do his end-of-year speech to his Grade Six class on the 90% Reduction Project. I was amazed, delighted and proud. It was listened to not only by his classmates and teacher, but by the principal and some of the other teachers in the school. There were a lot of questions which he was able to handle. Here is another example of how the project will spread.

Hi, my name is Margarita, and I was wondering if you ever got a response to your question with regard to why Mr. Beavan is asking for donations for his "experiment"? I have to admit that I found his request a bit puzzling, myself, and I'm glad you had the courage to ask him about it. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, Mr. Beavan doesn't seem too inclined towards answering the more challenging questions. I did not grow up poor, but we were blue-collar, working class, and my mother's and father's families were large and poor, as were my husbands parents'. We did learn to live without things, and sometimes find that when someone like Mr. Beavan goes around "discovering", as it were, the world of without with such wide-eyed enthusiasm, well, it's almost...insulting? You know, kind of like, he's a tourist, but he gets to go home, you know? And then he asks for financial support when there are so many people, so many, many people, who would be there, who would make it, if they could just get a break, you know? I wonder why he didn't encourage tithing instead? I know these aren't questions you can answer, but you are asking them, too. You are voicing the "Why?" It's not a popular question. Thank you for asking it.

I don't know if my family and I can do it, but we're going to do what we can, and then do a little bit more.

90% sounds like a lot, and it is, but we can only start by taking the first steps, and then by learning from each other as we go. I've just joined the Yahoo group too, and I hope that I'll be able to learn a lot from other people there, and maybe teach a little too.

All I know is that I want to be able to look my kids in the eye when they are adults (they're babies now), and say: "I did what I could, everything I could, and I didn't sit by and watch the world fall apart. And I did what I could because I love you."

Piddler, if you'd like to sign up, all the links are at the top of Miranda's blog www.simplereduce.wordpress.com. If I can ever get them put up here, they will be too! I'm so glad you want in!

Thanks for all the compliments, and dustybanjo - I'm so impressed by your son!!! That's wonderful!

Margarita, Colin never did answer me that I saw. I admit, I'm puzzled too. I get a little irritated sometimes too, but I think he's sincere - but "letting" people give you money seems a little weird to me. Typepad isn't that pricey - I think it is free, no?

I was also upset about NIM asking for donations. Allright, I WAS insulted. I spent a good deal of my childhood on the streets and some yuppie Manhattanite wants me to pay him to give up his fridge? (Sorry but that's how I felt when I read that; I nearly hit the roof.) He probably won't be happy when he reads the comment I left on his blog, but oh well.

I admire your restraint with the Beavan: he's doing a lot of good with that blog but he's also got some serious money blinders and it can get somewhat maddening. What annoys me and what I keep snarling ineffectually about in comments is his attempt to pass the impact buck onto lesser mortals (like, "You use your dirty, dirty laptop to typeset my book so I can stay pure," etc.). He somehow doesn't see that that doesn't add up to a reduction of one's impact. It's like paying somebody to tote stuff and turn the lights on and off on Shabbos or paying someone to serve one's time in jail or the military. He ain't see that, though, au cause de too much money obscures one's view of other people and moneystates. AnNOYing.

Thank you for the inspiration. Reducing our impact and living a good life of growing food, using les and wasting less is my wife Deanne and my direction /obsession and it feels damn good to stumble onto a community of like minded people. We, like so many folks I'd guess, have been gravitating in this direction for a long time, and are trying to function while soaking in the consumer culture that is devouring our planet and creating the mindset of most people. It is all too easy to feel like a space alien even among friends and family sometimes. Your thinking is clear and your heart and soul have the power to change people.(Colin is not so bad either in his quirky way! Sure sometimes he seems like a tourist but I don't think anyone could do what he is doing and remain uncommitted in the long run. I wish I had the gumption to do half of what he is doing to lower his impact right now. We are all fools of one sort or another and should try to love and support each other as much as we can bear to. I think the problem for Colin is that he has drawn a lot of media attention and has striven to make use of it, but his visability leaves him no protection from the enormous vulnerability to critcism that comes with being viewed as a perfect living example. It's a media microscope that would make most of us very uncomfortable.) Anyway thanks for the insights, commraderie, book recommendations and especially thanks for the hope! Flick